jestie, els can no benefitt at all, or but small, come to her majestie; and so consequently that law is of small regard, papists remayne unpunished, and the welldisposed subject greeved to see the sutes of wholesome lawes growe to nothing."

Owing to representations such as these, in the 35th of Elizabeth was passed a still more severe law against recusants; "such a law," "such a law," says Mr Hume, “as was suited to the severe character of the queen, and to the persecuting spirit of the age. It was entitled AN ACT TO RETAIN HER MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS IN THEIR DUE OBEDIENCE, and was meant, as the preamble declares, to obviate such inconveniences and perils as might grow from the wicked practices of seditious sectaries and disloyal persons; for these two species of criminals were always at that time confounded together, as equally dangerous to the peace of society. It was enacted, that any person above sixteen years of age who obstinately refused, during the space of a month, to attend public worship, should be committed to prison; that if, after being condemned for this offence, he persist three months in his refusal, he must abjure the realm; and that, if he either refuse this condition, or return after banishment, he should suffer capitally as a felon, without benefit of clergy. This law bore equally hard upon the puritans and upon the catholics."

In the year 1593 Henry Earl of Derby, the great friend of Dr Chaderton, died. The Bishop of Chester, who was a true courtier, then sought only a continuation of the patronage vested in the successor of this noble house. Sir John

P See Cotton, MS. Titus, b. iii. fol. 58.

This act is stated after the following manner in common Law Dictionaries::- "Persons professing the popish religion, for not frequenting their parish church, were disabled from taking their lands, either by descent or purchase, after eighteen years of age, until they renounced their errors. They were required at the age of twenty-one to register their estates, and all future conveyances and wills relating to them. They were incapable of presenting to any advowson, or keep or teach any school, under pain of perpetual imprisonment: and if they willingly said or heard mass they forfeited for the first offence 100, and for the second 200 marks, and suffered a year's imprisonment for each offence. If any person sent another abroad to be educated in the popish religion, or to reside in any religious house abroad for that purpose, or contributed to his or her maintenance, both the sender, the sent, and the contributor, were disabled to sue in law or equity, their goods and chattels and all their real estates being forfeited. If any person was reconciled to the Catholic religion, or had procured others to be reconciled, the offence amounted to high treason. Popish recusants were again considered as persons excommunicated. They could hold no office or employment; keep no arms in their houses, but the same might be seized by the justices of the peace; nor could they come within ten miles of London, nor travel five miles from home, unless by licence; nor come to court, on pain of L.100."

Harrington relates, that in the funeral sermon which he preached on the occasion at Ormskirk, "having spoken largely in praise of the deceased, he addressed himself to Ferdinando, who had succeeded to the title. You,' said he, noble Earl, that not only inherit, but exceed your father's virtues, learn to keep the love of your country as your father did. You give in your arms three legs, signifying three shires, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Lancashire. Stand fast on these three legs, and you shall need fear none of their arms.' At which the earl, somewhat moved, said with some warmth, and sinfully sealed it with an oath, This priest, I believe, hopes one day to make me three courtesies.'”

About this time the bishop, who, as warden of the Collegiate Church, had lived a considerable time in Manchester, and is reported to have preached and baptized more than other bishops of his time, removed his residence to Chester. The cause is stated to have been the frequent quarrels between his domestics and the inhabitants of the town, occasioned by the pride and unbending stiffness of one or both of the parties."

May 24, 1595, Dr Chaderton was translated from the see of Chester to that of Lincoln, and resigned the wardenship of Manchester.

Some obloquy has attended this warden, the correctness of which may be greatly doubted, regarding his management of the revenues of the College of Manchester. It is said that "at his departure he proved another Herle, making away what he could." t

When the bishop was removed to Lincoln he is reported to have become "a great encourager of the puritanical mode of prophesying.""

г

Hollingworth remarks, that A. D. 1594, the sickness was in Failsworth, at Clough House. s Godwin, Vol. II. p. 35.

Quotation in Mr Greswell's Collections, from a MS. of the date of 1684.

u Dr Chaderton died April 11, 1608, at Southoe in Huntingdonshire, and was obscurely buried in that church. It is affirmed that there has not been the least memorial erected for him or any of his family, who have been long since gone from that place.

In drawing up the foregoing narrative, I am chiefly indebted to the voluminous state-letters published by Peck in his Desiderata Curiosa. Two important documents now given are from the Archives in the British Museum; copies of them having been obligingly sent to me by Thomas Heywood, Esq. of Swinton.-S. H.

CHAPTER XIV.

ANNALS OF THE WARDENSHIP OF JOHN DEE, A. M. a. d. 1595 To 1608.

From Mr GRESWELL's collections, and HOLLINGWORTH, with additions.

HOLLINGWORTH observes, "That, anno 1595, John Dee, doctor of physicke, having a grant from the queen of the chancellourship of St Paul's, London, and that not falling void, he was offered, and did accept of, the wardenship of Manchester College, and had it by patent under the great seale."—" He was a very learned man ;

* The life of this extraordinary man has been written by several authors, and has been frequently before the public, on which account the publishers have been unwilling to swell up the pages of their work with too copious a biography, particularly as it is not connected with the annals of the Collegiate Church of Manchester. This must be, therefore, their apology for giving nothing more than an abstract of the " life of Dr Dee" as it appears among Mr Greswell's collections. He was born July 13th, 1527, in London; and after some time spent at school there and at Chelmsford in Essex, was sent in the year 1542 to St John's College in Cambridge. His application to his studies was intense. In May 1547 he visited the low countries, for the sake of conversing with several learned men ; and on his return to Cambridge was, upon the erection of Trinity College by King Henry VIII., nominated one of the fellows. He here enjoyed considerable reputation. His assiduity in making astronomical observations, which were then considered as connected with the desire of prying into futurity, gave rise to a variety of reports prejudicial to his character. In 1548 he took the degree of master of arts, and went to reside at the University of Louvain. Here he distinguished himself in such a manner as to attract the particular notice of the Duke of Mantua, Don Lewis de la Corda, (afterwards Duke of Medina Celi,) and other personages of high rank. In this university it is probable that he had the degree of doctor of laws conferred upon him. In July 1550 he went to Paris, where, in the College of Rheims, he read lectures on Euclid's Elements with vast applause; and great offers were made him, in vain, to induce him to accept a professorship in that university. In 1551 he returned into England; was well received by King Edward and the ministry, and had a pension of 100 crowns per annum, which he afterwards exchanged for a grant of the rectory of Uptonupon Severn, his majesty's presentation of which he received May 9th, 1553.

In the next reign he was for some time kindly treated, having in his youth been fellow student with some of Queen Mary's ministers; but a charge of plotting against her majesty's life by enchantments being preferred against him, he was committed to prison. After a tedious prosecution and confinement, his innocence was acknowledged, and August 19, 1559, he was restored to liberty. His zeal in the cause of letters appears from a memorial, which is addressed to the

R

a perfect master of mathematical studies. He was a master of divers secrets in vulgar chemistry. He was generally by the common people, and by some others, reputed a conjuror, and thereby was forced often seriously and fervently to apologize for himself. He was very sober, just, temperate in his carriage, studious, yea an observer of public and private devotions."

Queen, for the recovery and preservation of ancient writings and monuments, by a general search through the libraries of Europe.

Upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth, he delivered, at the desire of Lord Robert Dudley, his opinion upon the principles of the ancient astrologers, about the election of a fit day for the coronation, and thus recommended himself not only to the powerful favourite above-mentioned, and several others of the nobility, but to the Queen herself, insomuch, that she promised to be kinder to him than her brother Edward had been, and conferred upon him some extraordinary marks of her notice and favour. He received many promises of preferment in the church, which, however, were not realized,

In the spring of the year 1564, he went again abroad, to present to the Emperor Maximilian his work entitled "Monas Hieroglyphica," (printed at Antwerp, 1654,) and dedicated to that prince. But he returned to England in the summer, in which journey he was so serviceable to the Marchioness of Northampton, that she remained his constant patroness ever after.

In 1571 we find Dr Dee at Lorraine, where, falling grievously sick, and in great danger of death, he was not forgotten by the queen, who sent him two physicians, and gave him other proofs of her regard. Upon his return to England, he retired to his house at Mortlake in Surrey, where he continued to prosecute his studies with extraordinary diligence. At a large expence he collected a noble library, consisting of the most curious books in all sciences, and a very numerous and valuable collection of manuscripts, most of which were afterwards dispersed and lost. His library is said to have contained more than four thousand books, of which near a fourth part consisted of manuscripts. He had been nearly forty years collecting them.

On the 16th of March 1575, the Queen, attended by many of her nobility, went to Mr Dee's house to see his library. In 1578, when the Queen was indisposed, Dr Dee was sent abroad to confer with foreign physicians on the subject of her majesty's complaint. He was soon after einployed in reforming the calendar.

We now come to that part of Mr Dee's life by which he has been most known to the world. His intercourse with Edward Keily, a native of Worcestershire, began December 2d, 1581. This man pretended to instruct Mr Dee how to obtain, by certain invocations, an intercourse or communication with spirits, whence a great insight might be gained into what was then called " the occult sciences." For these instructions Kelly was to receive L.50 per annum.

Soon after there came to England a Polish lord, Albert de Laski, palatine of Suadia, a person of distinguished talents and learning. He was well received in this country, especially by Robert Earl of Leicester, the queen's favourite, and Mr Dee's chief patron. This foreigner afterwards became a constant visitor at Dr Dee's, having himself an inclination towards such superstitious arts as were then in so much credit at all the European courts. The doctor accompanied the Polish lord to his own country. They visited Rodolphus II. at the city of Prague. The emperor admitted them to an audience, but was soon disgusted with their reveries. By the King of Poland

John Dee is said by some authors to have been Doctor of Physic and LL. D., while others doubt that he ever took those degrees. He was, however, usually styled DOCTOR DEE."

Dr Dee met with so cool a reception that he returned to Prague; but the Pope's nuncio, resident there, representing him and his companions as magicians, and their presence being considered a scandal to the court, the emperor banished them from his dominions. The doctor found, however, an asylum in the castle of Trebona, belonging to William, Count of Rosemberg, a rich Bohemian nobleman.

Dee and Kelly now quarrelling, the former was induced to give up (January 4th, 1589,) the powder, books, glass, and other implements of conjuration to the latter, and thereupon received his discharge in writing from the Doctor, under his hand and seal.

Upon the 23d of November following, Dr Dee landed at Gravesend, and on the 9th of December presented himself to the queen at Richmond, and was very graciously received. Upon retiring to his own house at Mortlake, which he found in sad condition, he began to endeavour to collect the scattered remains of his library, and the furniture belonging to it, which had been dispersed, and partly destroyed by the populace, who, after his departure in 1583 for the continent, believing him to be a conjuror, and one who dealt with the devil, had broken into his house, and exhausted their rage upon whatever they found in it. He was, however, so successful, by the assistance of his friends in power, as to recover about three-fourths of his books. He estimated his loss at not quite L. 400.

Economy does not appear to have been a favourite virtue with Mr Dee. A very short time after his return he had to complain to the queen as well of his wants as of the vexations he suffered from the populace. To relieve the former, her majesty (A. D. 1590) promised him 200 angels to cheer his Christmas; one-half of the sum he received, but gave a broad hint that the Queen and himself were defrauded of the other.

He was next recommended by the Queen to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was desired to make provision for him; but after many disappointments and hopes of preferment his friends, being some of them dead, the friendship of others cooling, and his creditors growing impatient, he addressed, November 9th, 1592, a memorial to the throne, in which he earnestly requested that commissioners might be appointed to examine the testimonies which he had to exhibit in support of his several claims, to receive a just statement of his affairs, and to report these to her majesty. Two commissioners were accordingly sent on this business to Mortlake, when Mr Dee exhibited a book containing a distinct account of all the memorable transactions of his life.

The Queen in consequence sent Mrs Dee a present of 100 marks, and promises of preferment to her husband, which still continued unaccomplished like the former. On February 15th, 1593, he addressed another short petition in Latin to the Queen, the success of which does not appear. At length, December 8th, 1594, he obtained a grant of the Chancellorship of St Paul's; but this not answering his end, he addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury an account of all the books which he had either written or published, upon which he was presented with the war. denship of Manchester College, vacant by the removal of Dr William Chaderton to the see of Chester; his patent passing the Great Seal May 25th, 1595.

"I write him," says the author of an account of the wardens, (A. D. 1773,)" only master of